sensible long boy names that you can shorten

[sirlee66]

Hi everyone! I'm struggling. Mainly because I'm trying to achieve the impossible and we are very fussy.

Need a boy name that is.... Not common (I love Oliver so much but it's number 1 on the most popular boys list for 2018!!) We want a rare name.. where he will be the only one in the class with that name.

Sensible and as my nan likes to say 'a proper name' nothing like 'Blue' or 'North' (can't think of any other celeb baby names!)

Also our surname is 2 syllables starts with a 'D' and ends in the 'ee' sound. So a name like Danny won't work for us.

Also!!! We like long names that can be shortened eg. Theodore - Theo

DH hates Theodore plus it's on the top 20 UK baby names this year so that means its out :(

Any suggestions please help!

I can think of

Johnathan - Johnny - John
Matthew - Matt

But I don't actually like them! Haha! I LOVED Rupert but DH hates it and had vetoed it. I also loved Robert but that's out because of our surname (it would be the same as a famous actor!) Danngg!!

Christopher
Michael
Adrian
Alexander

William
Thomas
Alexander
Andrew
Jonathan
Christopher
Philip
Michael
Anthony
Steven
Ashley
Benjamin

Thomas
Timothy
David
Simon
Robert

Sebastian
Alistair

Joshua
Sebastian
Frederick

Timothy
Benjamin
Barnaby
Michael

How about Nathaniel, Sebastian, Alexander, Zachary, Nicholas, Christopher?

Sebastian / Seb
Laurence/ Laurie

Royston
Rufus
Raymond
Samuel
Edward
Gabriel (I know a 'Gabe' and it's always sounded cool)
Nicholas
Vincent
Frederick
Francis
Phillip
Oliver
Joseph
Marcus
Rafael (Rafa)

We want a rare name.. where he will be the only one in the class with that name

The thing is, you can’t ever really plan for this, it’s just the luck of the draw. You might pick a top 10 name and get lucky and your child is the only one in their class. Or you might pick a name that’s outside the top 100 and your child ends up as one of 3 in their class. It does happen - especially if you’re after a normal/ sensible/ not made up name.

I get what you’re saying because I feel the same (eg want a name that people have heard of but don’t want to actually know anyone with it!) But you just have to let the school class thing go I think and accept that your kid might end up best pals with someone who shares their name no matter where it falls in the top 100.

My suggestion (because I’ve just mentioned it on another thread) is Patrick nn Paddy. Works at any age. Everyone’s heard of it/ knows how to spell it, but it’s not mega- popular.

Richard

I feel your pain. I have twin boys and we struggled to find one name we liked, let alone two. In the end we went for quite traditional names, which I'm glad about as all the more unusual names are duplicated multiple times in the groups I attend and there are no others with the same names as my two!

Lawrence
Jeremy
Richard
Edward
Edmund

Patrick
Michael
Damien
Alastair
Matthew
Christopher
William
Nathaniel
Tobias

Gulliver (Gilly)
Menzies (Mingus)
Ebenezer (Ben?)
Barthomolew (Bart)
Abelard (Abe)
Algernon (Algie)
Broderick (Rick)
Callahan (Cal)
Columbus (Col)
Jefferson (Jeff)
Alexander (Sandy)
Maximo (Max)
Montgomery (Monty)
Solomon (Sol)
Thelonious (Theo)
Willoughby (Will)
Woodrow (Woody)

I wouldn't get caught up on names being in the top 20 or whatever. Even the most frequently used names aren't that common place. DS has a name that's been in the top ten for ages yet he's the only one in his year group. Equally you could pick a wonderfully unique name and find that someone else has done exactly the same.

Dominic , nickname Dom.

Alliterative names are awesome

Broderick, as mentioned above, could also be Brody instead of Rick.

Leopold
Leonard
Maximilian
Conrad
Hubert
Norman
Theodoric
Roman
Simon
Peter

Nicholas
Gregory
Frederick
Thomas
Benedict
Jeremy

Honestly, you can't worry about lists! Oliver has been the most popular name since DC1's birth! He'll be 16 next month. He's a Theodore and there are no other Theos in his entire secondary school and no Olivers in his year of 120 kids.
You'll trip over Bens and Jacks throughout school. That's a given. Still, when I say trip over, there might be one or two others in a class of 30 kids.

Some really great suggestions!!

Thanks so much everyone!

You are right, I need to stop worrying about top ten lists etc and not exclude a name just because it's on there!

Like a PP said, I could have a rare unique name and then find there's 3others with Thai same name in his class anyway!!

Your criteria is exactly the same as ours was.
I wanted the child to have a name everyone had heard of, but not so popular he would end up being Jack P or Oliver M at school. I wanted him to be the only one in his school with the name.
We went through name books and drew up a list of names we liked, then had a really good think if we knew of anyone at all, regardless of age, with that name.
It worked for us -all of my children went through primary school as the only one with their name, ds1 had one other with the name in senior school (1300 boys), dd has only one other (her best friend!) with her name, and we don't know about ds2 yet, as he is still at primary.

Oh cathf what are their names in so intrigued!!

I do think lists are very helpful. By avoiding a name that is already in the top 100 you're massively reducing the probability that the name will be duplicated. No guarantees but less likely.

How about

Christopher
Darius
Quentin
Marcus
Leonard

Alexander (Alex Zander)
Edward (Ted, Ned and Eddie)
Daniel (Dan)
Gabriel (Gabe)
Benjamin (Ben)
Thomas ( Tom)
Frederick (Fred Ricky Derry)
Douglas (Dougie)
Benedict (Ben, Ned)

Interesting to see people saying Leonard - i have a baby Leonard (Lenny) - please don’t make it popular 😂😂😭